Genre: pop
Rating: 3 stars ***
Title: Sunshine
Company: Guinness
Catalog: GNS 36057 AS
Year: 1977
Country/State: US
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: cut corner; still in shrink wrap
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5078
Price: $50.00
Okay, I'll admit that I'm fascinated by the whole 'tax scam' record label concept. Part of it may have something to do with my academic and career backgrounds (what a great subject for a thesis), but I've also been surprised by how good much of this 'throwaway' music has been.
From a marketing perspective this 1977 release was a pretty standard tax scam product - non-descript packaging, minimal liner notes, etc, however musically "Sunshine" was actually pretty good. Produced by Lou Guarino (who I believe was the same guy associated with such records labels as Calico, Robbee and World Artists), all nine tracks were credited to 'Peter Allen'. I'm also guessing it wasn't the same Peter Allen who was married to Liza Minnelli and recorded a series of albums for A&M, though some of the pseudo-dance material wasn't that far removed from the other Allen's catalog. Lacking liner notes there's no way of tell who actually performed on the album, but assuming Mr. Allen handled the vocals, he acquitted himself quite well. Tracks like the 'Riding High' and ''It's Gettin Better sported a power pop sound that wasn't all that far away from the likes of Badfinger. Too bad the whole album wasn't as good. Material like 'Tell Me Why' and like 'All I See' (propelled by a Frankie Valli-styled falsetto and some of the year's cheesiest synthesizers) were equally pop-oriented though far less distinguished, while 'Jumping High' and 'Man On the Flying Trapeze' fell victim to a mild-disco feel. Perhaps because it sported a weird pseudo-English and mildly psych feeling, my personal favorite was the ballad 'In Reach'. Sure, there wasn't a single ounce of originality to be found here, but for a throwaway product it sounded better than three quarters of big name releases.
"Sunshine" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Brother (Peter Allen) - 2:32
2.) Riding High (Peter Allen) - 2:48
3.) Tell Me Why (Peter Allen) - 2:47
4.) Jump Back (Peter Allen) - 3:10
5.) Man On the Flying Trapeze (Peter Allen) - 2:44
(side
2)
1.) It's Gettin' Better (Peter Allen) - 2:50
2.) Sunshine (Peter Allen) - 3:20
3.) In Reach (Peter Allen) - 3:30
4.) All I See Is You (Peter Allen) - 3:10